About

For over eighty-five years, New York's defining cultural moments have taken place at Russian Tea Room. Ever since members of the Russian Imperial Ballet founded the restaurant in 1927, it has been a second home for boldface names and the intellectual elite-an exclusive enclave where actors, writers, politicians, and businessmen planned their next deals and feted their friends' latest Carnegie Hall performances.

Whether you are celebrating a birthday, wedding, special occasion or hosting a corporate function, The Russian Tea Room can accommodate parties ranging from 10 to 800 guests for cocktails or full meals. With 3 completely unique and creative floors available, your guests will never forget your event.

Certainly disappointing... While the food was superb, I will say that the caviar appetizer felt like a "tourist trap." The blintz was too heavy, the "caviar" was mostly roe. I joined my party last, and waited 10 minutes before a server greeted me or inquired about my need for a drink. The ambiance seemed tired, as did the staff. Our server was nicer as the evening progressed, but never friendly. It was my sister's 75th Birthday. Bottom line - we did not feel welcome.

The food here is good enough. It's a long time New York restaurant but some of their prices are just robbery. I had an iced tea and it was $10!! No refills or anything. What a rip off. The service is also very rushed and they try to push you out very quickly.

We were warmly greeted when we arrived. The room was quiet and beautifully decorated. We sat in a roomy booth. The pace was leisurely and I felt as comfortable as if I were at home. One person had the salad which was large for an appetizer and had blue cheese and walnuts. Looked great and she said it was. We had the crepe with a mild goat cheese which was delicious. I had the baked salmon with fresh carrots, brocolini and rice and they had beef stroganoff. We all loved our main courses. We all had cheesecake for dessert which was good. This was the restaurant week menu and a good value. Tea was $10 and was a teabag in a pot served with cherries. Seems to me that is way overpriced. Coffee is $8. They did have inexpensive wine for $9 a glass. Service was pleasant and professional. Will definitely go back.

second time there. For restaurant week. Food is quite disappointing given their long-time reputation as one of the legendary classic places. Services is worse. When i asked for hot tea and stopped him from pouring my ice water (cramps issue), he ROLLED HIS EYE on me and said "huh". tables are at a reasonable distance from each other. But somehow did not help reduce the noise level in the dining area. Very noisy. Would not recommend this place to any one.

Enjoyed our winter restaurant week $29.00 lunch. Waiter was really pleasant and accommodating. Food was very good. We would have preferred a booth instead of a table,since there were other parties of two that had booths. Don't know if that was because wewere there for restaurant week or not. We did ask hostess as she was seating us if we could have a booth (there were booths empty and one right near us was filled after that with a couple). We did order wine and pots of tea so our bill was closer to $50.00 pp, which was fine with us.

We dined at the Russian Tea Room for Restaurant Week (winter 2018) and had a great experience. The RW menu was excellent and, unlike many restaurants that offer burgers or uninspired pasta on their RW menus, quite representative of the restaurant's classic fare. There was even a wine and vodka menu at reduced cost for RW diners. Most of us had the borscht, which was fantastic, and the beef stroganoff, which was very rich but delicious. The ambiance is quite different on the different floors of the restaurant -- with each floor nothing short of breathtaking. The Russian Tea Room is definitely one of the better options for RW dining.

I called the reservation to put Happy birthday on the cake but they don't do it, the serverwas not pleasant, the lady in front who took the name of us when we came, we were likestanding in front of her and she told us to move, while this american ladies stand in frontof her she didn't say anything, my first and last will not go back there anymore.

My colleagues and I went here for a restaurant week lunch outing and had an amazing experience. The 2nd floor was by far the best room in the house that featured,a giant statue of a polar bear filled with koi fish, ornate ceiling decorated with beautiful art work and stained glass! The service was phenomenal and the chocolate mousse is to die for!

I had been here a couple of years ago and thought it was phenomenal. This time though the beef was dry and chewy, my boyfriend's chicken tasted like it had no seasoning on it, not even salt. While I wouldn't call it a "bad" experience, I feel like I don't want to go here again.

I went during restaurant week, and felt that waiters not all, but some, are super rude , maybe because of the special week, but I asked the waiter to recommend one of the desserts from the menu, and he said, and I quote.. what Ever he thinks its not important..... That said! Place is beautiful, food was good & it represented the normal menu , but the waiter being rude, takes away a lot of the experience..

I hate to even have to say this - but the prime booths were only offered to heterosexual couples. When I was seated at a table with my female companion, I inquired about a booth. The hostess rudely snapped that they were for larger parties. I told her there were several couples seated (5 couples to be exact). She said they had been there since lunch and walked away quickly to end our conversation. It was 6:15pm.

I noticed that the other people seated at tables around us were also parties of the same sex or bigger parties (5 people).

It was really a shame to have experienced that at such a beautiful landmark restaurant. This was my first visit and I was thrilled in the weeks leading up to it - but it will likely be my last visit.

We went for a restaurant week dinner. The food - we tried blinchiks, chicken, stroganoff and both desserts - was very good, and it was plenty to eat. At first we felt rushed, I assume because they do a lot of pre-theater business. But, once we asked the server to slow down, we were able to relax and enjoy our meal, which was great. The 3-course menu was a good value, and we found a nice, reasonable bottle of wine, too. My only complaint: they charged an absurd - even for NYC - $8 for a so-so cup of coffee. Go, enjoy this classic NYC place, just maybe skip the coffee.

Disgusting, inedible food. Made a reservation but still had to wait an hour to be seated. Extremely expensive and was the worst food I have ever eaten. Took one bite and started gagging. Don't go here!

If you know anything about Russian food, you would know immediately that the food is not authentic here. They put SUGAR in their borcht so it's too sweet, there was no meat in the borcht either, and they didn't even give you sour cream to put in it!! Enough said. Subpar food at a extravagant price.

Restaurant Week on a Friday evening. I think I would have preferred to have been seated on the ground floor. Let me get to the issues first. Drinks are overpriced. Moscow Mule = $22 and you don't even know what Vodka is being used. My wife's Vodka Cosmo was $18. The beef Stroganoff wasn't hot enough, the dinner rolls were hard. A round table for four came while we were dining. The women pulled out her chair and there was a napkin on the chair from the previous party, she took it in stride but you could see she saw it as unexpected. When I pointed it out to a nearby waiter he didn't take it away but actually told us to ignore it. My wife used the bathroom facilities and came back telling me it was filthy. I wanted to like the Russian Tea Room, The Borscht was fantastic, the Chocolate Mousse Cake was decadent. I just got the impression the meal wasn't prepared, a bit too assembly line for my liking.

My friends and I selected The Russian Tea Room for Restaurant Week. It is a beautiful restaurant with very interesting decor. We even took photos of the dining room. The choices on the dinner menu for Restaurant Week were varied and we were excited to get our food. The dinner rolls were delicious. I ordered the blinchik which was small, but that’s okay. I was looking forward to the entree. Unfortunately, we were disappointed with our entree. A few of us ordered salmon. One friend asked the waiter to take it back and get her the beef Stroganoff. I ate my salmon but I think the meal was lukewarm, including the risotto it was on. I didn’t finish the risotto. The dessert was good. I had chocolate cake. A few of us ordered the cheese cake, which was very good. I was really shocked to see that they were charging $10 for a cup of tea. They had an excellent selection but I will not pay $10 for a tea bag and a pot of hot water. Cappuccino was $8 which seemed like a better deal, but I don’t drink coffee. Our waiter was very good as were the other servers.

The room is gorgeous. The food was really disappointing. The borscht was underseasoned, the salmon overcooked and the cheesecake tasted like it came out of the discount freezer at the supermarket. I felt sorry for the waiters, they must find the complaints about the food tiring. No excuse not to serve good quality food.

Not at all impressed. A place I thought I had to try as its a NYC landmark but obviously I should have tried it 30 years ago. Food was mediocre. Our original server disappeared and was replaced by a very nice young man who did his best to salvage the evening. With so many amazing restaurants in this city, make another choice. This place is past its prime.

I was in town for a 2 week business trip and wanted to take advantage of Restaurant Week. Although it took 30 minutes past our reservation time to get seated, it all worked out and the food was very good. The vodka sampler was good, but a bit expensive.